Iraqi Women Visit County

Two Who Survived Hussein's Rule Say Iraq Welcomes U.s. Occupation, But Not Everyone Buys Their Line.

October 22, 2004|By Shahien Nasiripour Staff Writer

Two Iraqis visited Palm Beach County on Thursday as part of a nationwide public relations mission to convince Americans that Iraqis appreciate our country's efforts there.

They told a class at Florida Atlantic University about the atrocities committed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein's rule and said ordinary Iraqis love U.S. soldiers.

Humaila Aqrawee, a 23-year-old interpreter for the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, said Americans aren't hearing the truth about what is going on in Iraq. She blamed the media for exaggerating the death and destruction. Iraq is doing well, she said, and they need U.S. support to continue.

"We are so grateful to American soldiers for what they have done for our country," Aqrawee said. "Thousands of Iraqis are committed to Operation Iraqi Freedom and we will continue to fight alongside Americans."

The tour, sponsored by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a neoconservative group that lists Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle, Gary Bauer and Bill Kristol among its advisers, started in June. They've visited Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, Arkansas, Missouri and West Virginia.

Ali Hashim Ramadan Al-Jazairy, a lawyer from Basra with a Scottish accent, accompanied Aqrawee. The two have been telling groups that most Iraqis welcomed U.S. forces and want them to stay. Al-Jazairy and Aqrawee said Iraqis do not consider the enduring war an occupation, but a liberation. They also said there is no civil war in Iraq, rather terrorist incidents perpetrated by foreign fighters from Syria, Iran and Jordan.

Aqrawee has been in the United States for about five weeks. Al-Jazairy, a worker employed by the Research Triangle Institute, a North Carolina-based company that recently won a $167 million contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development, has been traveling in the United States for about 10 days. About 25 Iraqis have been brought to the United States by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies to tell their side of what is going on in Iraq -- not the picture being painted by press organizations. Some think their claims of a happy Iraq are embellished.

"Iraqis are angry that America didn't have a plan. They're not happy at all," said James Zogby of the Arab American Institute. "The majority of Iraqis aren't doing well, don't think they're doing well and aren't happy with the occupation. This group is interested in its political agenda rather than describing what is really happening on the ground."

Some students didn't agree with the group's claim to represent all of Iraq.

"It's weird. I don't think they can represent the entire Iraqi people," FAU student Julia Goering said. She questioned their intentions, and whether Aqrawee and Al-Jazairy were politically motivated.

"They have a very definite agenda," Zogby said. "They have an ideological agenda, partly neoconservative and very skewed."

Zogby also questioned the group's U.S. tour and whether it was politically motivated to target swing states in a presidential election year.

"It may be working in Ohio, but it's not working in Baghdad," he said.

Shahien Nasiripour can be reached at snasiripour@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6531.